Netlisp is built upon a modular implementation of Scheme. Additional functionality is easily added with new modules. Support for other electronic data formats is added by the creation of new modules that translate between an annotated format used by Netlisp.
A language translator package has been customized for Netlisp allowing new data formats to be supported easily. Support for additional formats will be added as needed in response to customer demand.
Netlisp supports all dialects of EDIF natively. Being a dialect of Scheme, it can easily manipulate the data structures of the EDIF language. A validator of the EDIF 200 format is available and validators of the EDIF 300 and EDIF 400 variants are under development.
There is a large number of third party EDIF translators available that will convert to and from a variety of formats. This may provide a suitable solution for Netlisp integration if a Netlisp module supporting the format translation is not immediately available.
The GDSII format is a registered format of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. It was originally developed by Calma Co in the early 1970s. It is used to represent the two-dimensional design data from which manufacturing masks are fabricated.
The ability to translate in the binary GDSII format, manipulate it under script control, and then translate it back out is a tremendous feature of Netlisp. With Netlisp, all the cells and their contents in an entire design library can be easily accessed and modified using the annotated nature of the EDIF language.
The Netlisp GDSII translator has proven capable of translating back and forth and maintaining binary one-to-one integrity with the original stream file. While the sample stream files did not fully test the complete GDSII language, the additional language constructs can be quickly added as needed. This is not likely to cause a problem for most projects as these more esoteric features of the language are seldom used anyway.
This format is closely related to EDIF. If there is demand for a direct EdaXML translator it can be developed in short order.